So you have been sitting in front of your laptop all day at work and you are starting to feel your neck getting stiff. You try to loosen things up a bit by rolling your head around. Then you hear a popping sound in your neck but you also notice that it feels a little better.

How many times have you experienced this situation?

You are not the only person who cracks his or her own back or neck. In fact, according to studies, many people regularly crack necks, knuckles, and even toes. But the questions is – how safe is it?

You might be thinking, “Cracking my neck makes me feel better, so how can it be bad for me?”, but the truth is cracking your own neck has consequences you should be aware of. If you have doubts, here a list of what we have in our neck area:

  • Arteries
  • Bones
  • Blood vessels
  • Joints
  • Muscles
  • Nerves
  • Ligaments
  • Spinal cord

If you don’t get a proper exam, you wouldn’t know if you have a disc bulge or if you have any anatomical malformations in your neck. These things are potential risk factors that depend on the twisting and rotating forces in your neck.

Where does the popping sound come from?

Our joints contain gasses like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen, as well as fluid to lubricate the spot where two bones meet. When the liquid in that area is put under pressure, gas bubbles in the joint are released, resulting in the popping sound you hear.

When those gas bubbles are released, the fluid within the joints also lubricates the surfaces of the joint which restores the nerve function, as well as ease of movement. That is why you feel some relief.

If the practice makes you feel better, then what’s the problem?

Every time you forcefully manipulate your own joints, you are also stretching your ligaments.  Imagine when you stretch a rubber band too many times. Eventually, the rubber band loses its shape and becomes unstable. The same thing happens to our ligaments.

When you constantly stretch them by cracking your own neck, soon they won’t be able to provide the stability that the joints in your neck require to maintain alignment. Of course, this can only cause an array of issues like stiffness, pinched nerves, misaligned vertebra, and pain.

You should also know that when you are cracking your own neck it is a non-specific movement, meaning you are doing it to the ligaments that are already stretched, and not necessarily doing it to the parts of your spine that you believe are causing stiffness or pain or decreased mobility. So while you think you are fixing the problem, you are actually stretching ligaments that don’t need to be stretched and probably causing more problems.

What’s your best option, then? Chiropractic care for your neck pain is a better alternative. Pay us a visit at Back in Balance and a reputable chiropractor will perform a thorough examination to find out which areas of your spine are locked up and which are too stretched out. A treatment plan will be then suggested based on the findings to restore normal motion to the joints that are locked up and/or stretched too much, to relieve you of pain.

While cracking your own neck may feel really good, it does result to long-term problems with your neck and those problems are simply not worth the risk.